Kejriwal-Udayakumar had secret meet on Kudankulam stir?

Kudankulam, Sept 12: The anti-Kudankulam nuclear plant protest seems to be gaining steam with every passing day. Now, former Team Anna member and anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal has lent his star power to the cause and has fired a salvo at both the Centre's stiff policies as well as the Jayalalithaa government's stern action against the protestors in a press meet.

Kejriwal training his guns and adding more fuel to the already raging Kudankulam issue said that the state government was targetting the innocent fishermen and villagers who were part of the protest. He also alleged that 40 boats of the fishermen were destroyed in the recent crackdown by the Tamil Nadu police.

The head of the agitation and leader of the PMANE, Udayakumar was conspicuous by his absence while Kejriwal was slamming the state's reaction to the protests. It was reported that Udayakumar was expected to surrender late night yesterday, but chose to defer after Kejriwal talked him out of it. Udayakumar was also taken away by supporters to a secret location to avoid being arrested by the cops.

In a dramatic speech made yesterday by Udayakumar, he has been quoted as saying, "We heard the police is planning a door by door search. We don't want our people to undergo this." He had also stated that he would court arrest in the presence of "prominent national leader".

Meanwhile, local reports suggest that Kejriwal had a secret meeting with Udayakumar with a concrete plan allegedly being formulated to fire up the protests. The news of this rendezvous was, however, not reported in any of the national media channels. Feigning innocence, Kejriwal commented today, "If Udayakumar is listening to me then I would request him not to surrender the government and if he surrenders then the movement will die. We are with him."

Additional Director General of Police S George, hardening his stance against protestors, said, "Cases have been registered against protestors attacking the police and damaging property. Around 2,000 police personnel have been deployed in Kundankulam and surrounding areas."

With protests spreading to parts of Chennai and Coimbatore, the police personnel are doing all it can to curb the protests from snow balling into a big movement. A total of 51 people have been arrested so far. The protests have successfully managed to stall the filling of uranium fuel into the 2 reactors.